FURTHER COMPETITIONS

For details of further competitions the south bank library has compiled quite an extensive list.

The link is:

http://www.poetrylibrary.org.uk/competitions/

PHOTO PROMPT

From beneath the basement stairs...

FREE READING

It's no secret that as a writer you have to read. I also find it helpful to listen to audio recordings just for variety. Micheal Moorcock and T H White bluntly advise "Read. Read everything you can lay hands on".

As there has been quite a bit of talk about J K Rowling's The Silkworm I sounds like it's probably worth a read.
You can hear an audio of chapter one here:

http://www.theguardian.com/books/audio/2014/jun/12/jk-rowling-robert-galbraith-the-silkworm-audiobook-listen


For those of you who aspire to write children's books, The guardian also has a list of books you can preview on their website. I particularly liked If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch.
Here's the link:

http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/interactive/2014/apr/30/free-read-she-wore-red-trainers-naima-b-robert

Cape Open Submissions - Vintage Books

Cape Open Submissions - Vintage Books

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
From 1–30 June, 2014, Jonathan Cape will be open for fiction submissions from new writers of high calibre and imagination.

PHOTO PROMPT: Poetry or Short story

Lone Rose

VILLANELLE: FORM OF THE WEEK

The highly structured villanelle is a nineteen-line poem with two repeating rhymes and two refrains.
The form is made up of five tercets followed by a quatrain.
The first and third lines of the first stanza repeating alternately in the following stanzas. These two refrain lines form the final couplet in the quatrain.


Example

Newness of Life
by Shadow Hamilton


In Spring young thoughts turn to fancy
life around us is renewed
ladies wearing gowns all chintzy

Do entice men with a curtsey
careful least it's a wedding bed
in Spring young thoughts turn to fancy

Now the ladies, a few doxy's
love to spin, their skirts all spread
Ladies wearing gowns all chintzy

Love comes courting in ecstasy
the fashion this year is redheads
in Spring young thoughts turn to fancy

The ladies are so full of moxie
lead men on but no maidenhead
ladies wearing gowns all chintzy

Fluttering eyelids so saucy
men their passions this time unfed
in Spring young thoughts turn to fancy
ladies wearing gowns all chintzy

Another example

One Art
BY ELIZABETH BISHOP

The art of losing isn’t hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.

—Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident
the art of losing’s not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

2014 Poetry and short story competitions

26th May: David burland
Web: www.davidburlandpoetryprize.com

31st May: Bridport Prize
www.nestmagie.co.uk

31st May: Sentinal (Poetry and short story)

17th June: Mslexia Women’s Poetry Competition
http://www.mslexia.co.uk/poetry

30th June : Battered Moons Poetry Competition 2014
http://www.poetry-festival.co.uk/poetry-competition.html

30th June: London Magazine International Poetry Competition 2014

31st July: Foyle Young Poet of the Year Award now open

17th August: Buzzwords

31st August: Aesthetica Creative Writing Competition 2014

31st October: Cannon Poets Sonnet or Not

31st October: Poetry society.org.uk

31st October: Poetrycan.org.uk

31st October: National Poetry Competition